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The IPKat has had his portrait painted by the AmeriKat - raising another issue of non-human authorship/ownership In the AmeriKat's free time (which does, on occasion, exist), she takes her paw to some painting, being her medium of choice since kittenhood.   The paintbrush is dictated by the AmeriKat's paw which, in turn, is dictated by the spark of artistic expression and emotion lighting up the hemispheres of her brain.  Artistic expression which cannot be downloaded, decoded or analyzed in any complete way.  It is this artistic expression and the old image of the tortured, hungry and, often, poor artist, that historically fueled some of the philosophic underpinnings of some copyright systems  and, in particular, purportedly justified moral rights and duration extensions.  Over the last century, the subject matter of copyright has seen an expansion as the proliferation of information has created "new"  subject matter capable of protection with the jus...

Hot on the heels of the ChIPs Global Summit in D.C. a couple of weeks ago (more reports to come), is news of the London Chapter's next event on 14 November 2018 at 6:00 for 6:30PM at Simmons & Simmons  entitled " Take your seat at the bench:  An evening with the IP/Tech Judges ".  In over 10 years of practice, the AmeriKat has only appeared before a woman judge once - a breach of confidence return date. This is not particularly surprising given the stats:  although 68% of law students are women, only just over 20% of High Court judges and 29% of law firm partners are women.  More work needs to be done, but things are changing.  There are an increasing number of women lawyers sitting as judges and hearing a wide breadth of IP and tech cases in the English courts. So how do we get the next wave of women to the bench?  This is the question that the London Chapter of ChIPs will be asking an esteemed panel of women IP/tech judges who have already for...

The Court of Appeal bats around global FRAND rates Following this morning's Court of Appeal hand down, patent litigators across the UK and further afield have been analyzing the judgment in Unwired Planet v Huawei [2018] EWCA Civ 2344 .   The AmeriKat was only able to briefly summarize the findings, so had to rely on her friends at Bird & Bird (sounds like dinner to the AmeriKat...) in the form of Jane Mutimear and Richard Vary who expand on the Court of Appeal's findings as follows: "The Court of Appeal handed down judgment in the Unwired Planet v Huawei appeal this morning (23 October 2018).   The bench consisted of Lord Justice Kitchin (now Lord Kitchin since his elevation last month to the Supreme Court), Lord Justice Floyd and Lady Justice Asplin. They handed down a 291 paragraph, 66 page judgment dealing with Huawei's appeal and Unwired Planet's cross-appeal against Birss J's findings Huawei would be subject to an injunction in the UK unless they...

How surprised were you about the Court of Appeal's decision? For those of you who haven't been eagerly awaiting today's decision from the Court of Appeal in the Unwired Planet v Huawei appeal , let the AmeriKat surprise you with this bit of news - the Court of Appeal has upheld Birss J's decision  from last April.  In dismissing all three grounds of appeal, the Court of Appeal in Unwired Planet v Huawei [2018] EWCA Civ 2344    (with Lord Kitchin giving the lead judgment) held that: 1 .   Birss J was entitled to find that, in all the circumstances, only a global licence would be FRAND (see [129]). 2.   Huawei's appeal on the non-discriminatory element of FRAND failed.  Huawei argued that the licence offered to them did not meet the ND criteria because the global royalty rate offered to them was much higher than that contained in global licence granted to Samsung, but the Court of Appeal held that the offer was non-discriminatory (see [207]); 3...

Add caption The AmeriKat was back in Washington D.C. at the ChIPs Global Summit this week for three days of sessions on technology, law and policy .   This year the theme of the Global Summit is "Exploring New Fronts" covering cutting-edge developments in the law, the shifting regulatory landscape for technology companies, challenges facing general counsel, and diversity and inclusion strategies available. At the heart of ChIPs is its mission statement in increasing diversity and supporting women in these areas for the benefit of all society.  After an introduction from Mallun Yen ( Co-Founder of ChIPs ) (more on that later), Sarita Venkat  ( Director of ServiceNow ) took the stage to expertly chair the first panel of Wednesday on "Technology and Politics:  Take 2" with Jamie Gorelick ( WilmerHale ), Karen Dunn ( Boies Schiller ) and Juleanna Glover ( RidgelyWalsh ).  The opinions expressed by the panel were their own personal views, not of their firms...

The AmeriKat reading the  Court of Appeal judgment The AmeriKat frequently prowls the Daily Cause List ( the list of scheduled hearings and decisions in the English Courts) searching for interesting IP hearings and decisions being handed down.  Although the Unwired Planet appeal hearing was in May, no sign of the Court of Appeal's decision was appearing in the Daily Cause List.  The overheated English summer saw no sign.  Nor did the first windy days of the new Court term.  But then, there it was.  On Friday afternoon, it appeared on the AmeriKat's screen as follows: TUESDAY, 23 OCTOBER, 2018 in COURT 74, at 10.30, Judgment will be given in the following: APPEAL From The Chancery Division Patents Court FINAL DECISIONS A3/2017/1784 Unwired Planet International Limited and anr -v- Huawei Technologies Co. Limited and anr. This will be an important decision for global FRAND/SEP litigation and strategy (see previous reports here ).  One of the key issue...

The AIPPI Congress started in earnest on Monday morning.  Although many were already lamenting the cruelty of those who decided to hold an IP conference on a beach resort, it was not enough to pull them away from the start of the panel sessions.  One of the most popular was the copyright session on the balancing exercise between copyright and other rights.  First time attendee (and the UK Group's prize winner), Sarah Blair ( Bristows LLP ) was at the helm ready to report on the session for the IPKat.  Sarah reports as follows: The AmeriKat's fleeting Sunday night view " Jan Bernd Nordemann ( Boehmert & Boehmert ) chaired a panel session to discuss the means by which copyright laws in different jurisdictions seek to achieve balance between copyright and other rights and interests. Irely Aquique ( Mexican Institute of IP ) spoke about the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property’s (IMPI) approach to this issue (for which she is the Director of IP Enforcement)....

The final morning of the AIPPI Congress in Cancun was hot, the Caribbean air having whipped up a thick humidity that turned the AmeriKat's mane into lion proportions.  So it was fitting that there a panel session dedicated to Hot Topics in IP.  Dr Catherine Bonner ( Chapman IP ) was on hand to summarize what the next big things in IP will be.  No surprise that one of them included Brexit.  Over to Catherine for her report: The AmeriKat's view over the Caribbean waters "At the AIPPI Congress in Cancun the weather is hot, at 30°C and 71% humidity, and the IP Panel Sessions are the same. Wednesday morning’s Briefing; ‘Hot topics in IP’ excellently chaired by Eryck Castillo gave a summary of six burning issues in the World of IP.  1.  First up to the plate, with the "Implications of Brexit for IP" was Mr Justice Henry Carr ( UK High Court )     A tough topic and, as Carr J himself acknowledged, one that back in his days at the Bar he would have ...

Before lunch yesterday, attendees were treated to a session on the protection and potential remedies that may be available for patents before issue and after expiry.  With Steve Garland ( Smart & Biggar) at the helm, the AmeriKat summarizes the four key points coming from the session as follows:  Views from the pre-grant and post-expiry remedies session 1.  Use Italian preliminary measures to weaponize an early injunction threat with a pre-grant injunction.    Judge Marina Tavassi  (President of the Milan Court of Appeal) explained that in Italy there is a tradition of patentees seeking and obtaining pre-grant injunctions on the basis of their published, but not granted, patent applications.  It was explained that this tool was available in recognition and to counterbalance the length of the ultimate substantive patent proceedings. Judge Tavassi noted that the patent trials in Italy are speeding up, particularly because, she said, Italy enjoys sp...

This year's AIPPI Congress is in Cancun, Mexico.  Yes, try explaining this location to your colleagues and clients.  But although the waters are crystal blue and the sand warm and soft, most attendees are spending their days in windowless conference rooms debating the latest developments in IP law and practice.  One such person is guest Kat reporter, Richard Vary ( Bird & Bird ) who was on hand to report on yesterday's panel session on standard essential patents (SEPs).  Over to Richard: Yesterday's SEP session " Gertjan Kuipers from De Brauw chaired the highlight of the AIPPI Conference for 2018: the SEP panel (at least in this author's view). He chose as the topic the slightly less often asked question of how to optimise a patent business in today's SEP licensing world.  Peter Martinsson from Ericsson introduced Ericsson's contributions to the connected world. He reminded us of the huge advances made in the last few years. Wireless connectivity is...